THE 9.9 PERCENT

A charged study of the second-tier wealthy in America, the principal engine of inequality.

Yes, the richest of the rich own a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth, the top one-thousandth who “now own almost one quarter of everything of economic value in the country.” This represents an index of inequality that, writes philosopher and historian Stewart, we haven’t seen since before the Great Depression. Overlooked, though, are the remaining 9.9 percent in that top-10 tier, those whose net worth, beginning in the low millions, collectively embraces “more than half of [the] personal wealth in the nation.” These people, overwhelmingly White and well educated, are enthusiastic proponents of the myths of merit and the wisdom of the free market (“the great opiate of the 9.9 percent”), which is not free and also generates inequality as a feature and not a bug. Indeed, the capture and hoarding of so many financial resources by this cohort yields inequality on every front: enclaved neighborhoods that constitute de facto segregated housing, elite schools that constitute de facto segregated education, and an academia that is all too willing to support these inequalities and the accompanying politics of unreason. “Intellectuals like Amy Chua and Jonathan Haidt occupy the most meritorious perches in the American hierarchy of learning,” writes Stewart. “Why do they have so much trouble calling a con job a con job? If they are not standing up for reason, then who is?” Those are questions demanding answers, and underlying them is that politics of unreason, which “always favors injustice over justice and…always targets those who are most vulnerable.” Stewart’s charges are comprehensive, and sometimes he can be a little testy (“Universal American stupidity was undoubtedly a comorbidity factor for Covid-19”), but he matches them with a reasonable demand for a commitment to economic justice that would elevate all Americans, not just the lucky few.

A sharp-tongued, altogether readable, and welcome assault on unrestrained wealth.